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EULOGY 




ON TUB L.TB 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ; 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE EUCLEIAN SOCIETY 



or THE 



UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 



MAY 28, 1841. 



BY 



HUGH S. CARPENTER. 




NEW-YORK: 

HOPKINS & JENNINGS, PRINTERS, 
No. Ill Fulton-stroot. 

1841. 




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EULOGY 






ON THE I.ATK 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ; 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE EUCLEIAN SOCIETY 



OF TIIK 



UNIVERSITY THE CIT 



y OF INEW-VORK, 



MAY 28, 1841. 



BY 



HUGH S. CARPEN TER. 






» • 



• • 



NEW-YORK: 

HOPKINS fc JENNINGS, PJUNTKRa, 
No. in Fulton-rtreet. 

1841. 






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05 



Euclcian Hall, 

University of the City of New- York, 

Saturday, May With, 1841. 

Mr. Hugh S. Carpenter, 

Sir: 

The undersigned, appointed a Committee by the Eu- 
cleian Society of the University of the City of New-York, 
in the name of the Society, respectfully request from you a 
copy of your Eulogy on the late President Harrison, de- 
livered before the Society, Friday evening, May 28th, 
1841, for publication. 

Believing that you have handled this subject, so often 
the theme of the Orator and the Divine, in a manner mas- 
terly as well as eloquent, and that your oration possesses 
that intrinsic worth, which will enable it to undergo the 
scrutiny of the literary public with honour to yourself 
and to the Society of which you are a member, we have 
the honour to submit the request of the Society. 
Yours, respectfully, 

Alexr. Ramsay Thompson, 
Wellington Forgus, 
Robt. Ogden Doremus. 



New- York, Tuesday, June 1st, 1841. 

Gentlemen : 

I have received your kind note informing me of the 
Society's request. Unexpectedly as you have honoured 
me, and unworthy as my brief oration is to be numbered 
with the numerous eloquent discourses on the same theme 
by the great men of our country, I cannot refuse to let it 
go forth under the auspices of my own Society. I there- 
fore cheerfully transmit to you a copy. 
With sentiments of the highest esteem, 

I am gentlemen, 

Your Fellow Eucleian, 

H. S. Carpenter. 
To Messrs. 

Alexr. R. Thompson, 
W. Forgus, 

RoBT. O. DOREMUS. 



EULOGY. 



The sun which arose in glorious effulgence, un- 
der whose genial beams the nation basked, has, by 
inscrutable Wisdom, been suddenly eclipsed from 
our vision. The bright star that shot forth its 
cheering rays in what threatened to be a gloomy 
niffht, has forever fallen; and although when we 
remember those who in mercy are left, we rejoice 
that the heavens are not utterly blackness, yet 
must we ever miss its resplendence, even from our 
spangled firmament. 

When a hero falls, we mourn. But we have 
lost in Harrison, the unblemished hero, the self- 
denying statesman, the glorious patriot. \\ hen 
the first burst of noisy sorrow has subsided, and 



our affection has grieved for the man, loudly and 
passionately, then is the time to measure our loss. 
A slight trembling, then an awful crash, and we 
stood confounded. Even in the most deliberate 
expressions of a nation's grief, we could but cry 
" alas !" and point to the throne of God whence 
we are stricken. But now, look where that best 
pillar of our government has fallen ; look at that 
awful chasm, that horrid rent, that universal deso- 
lation, — and look calmly if you can. Innume- 
rable orators have tried to portray our loss, but 
they fall far below the estimation of our own 
hearts. Eloquence cannot represent our bereave- 
ment, and to increase our feeling is beyond its 
power. 

We turn from this view of the subject. We 
would regard less our own selfishness, and from 
the warning tones of affliction from the hand of 
God, turn to contemplate the bright reality of the 
patriot's life, the glorious tranquil of his end. 

"A warrior lived, a Christian died, 
Sorrow should slumber in our pride." 

The nation has bowed in ashes, and been hum- 



bled at the rebuke of an offended Sovereign. 
Profitable, as mournful, we would hope, has been 
that universal Fast ; but more pleasing, more en- 
nobling will it be to muse on the brilliant page of 
the hero's character. And here we pause to 
wonder, that while the people dressed in sable 
and sackcloth, have deeply sorrowed for the de- 
parted, the multitude of eloquence has been con- 
tent to mourn the loss of a President, and not that 
that President was Harrison. But can we not 
find in his own character a lustre unborrowed 
from any office ? Rather, where is a single spot 
darkening the brilliancy of his career ? Vain 
were the insinuation, that as he lived not to ad- 
minister our government, we know not what would 
have been his efficiency. Perish the mean spirit 
of expediency which so poisons the principles of 
this nation ; judging character only in the light of 
its ability to benefit, and teaching to undervalue, 
if not to despise, that nobility of spirit which 
leaves not some hire for its praise ! 

True — the bright opening of our President's 
administration dimmed and blackened while we 
gazed! True — his whole-souled maxims of un- 



8 

compromising honour flashed forth only in an In- 
augural Address ; his glittering promise to pre- 
serve inviolate executive integrity, which so glad- 
dened our hearts, was never tested. But the hero 
was old, the patriot was gray, his life is before 
us; and again we ask, where is the spot on his 
glory ? By even that murderer of character — 
the partisan press of our day — engaged in a mad 
effort to defeat his election, not a shadow of doubt 
could be breathed over his moral purity, — his 
splendid integrity. There was no room for ca- 
lumny, save when she strove to show those gray 
hairs, crowned with glory, as his shame ; and that 
age of merit and of wisdom, as imbecility and un- 
fitness for station. He took that seat amid the 
deafening plaudits of the Union. He touched the 
sceptre, and an electric thrill of confidence in their 
head inspirited the Nation. All felt, even his op- 
ponents, that the principles on which he based his 
administration, were noble ; the governing max- 
ims which he avowed, were glorious and safe. 
All knew that whatever might be the perplexities 
of government, and the inability of man to pre- 
vent calamity, Genernl Harrison could do nothing 



base ; coukl never stoop to the perversion of his 
authority. His Inaugural remains with us, worthy 
to be kept in letters of gold, to be studied with 
veneration, and inscribed on the heart by all who 
B< vie to serve their country, — to be thundered 
in the ears of every hollow-hearted demagogue 
throughout the Union. It flew forth on the wings 
of the morning, delighting the scholar by its ele- 
gance, the soldier by its dignity, the statesman by 
its truth, and the Christian by its piety ; cheering 
every spirit, and stirring up anew the embers of 
patriotic hope, long slumbering through discour- 
agement. We revived ; we were busy ; but we are 
hushed again. The message came to him, as we be- 
lieve, in a blessed presentiment. "Return ! Come !" 
sounded in the old man's ears, not a sentence, but 
the gentle breathing of kind invitation. A heavy 
sense of responsibility, heightened by patriotic 
zeal, doubtless often made him stretch his strain- 
in- gaze into the vista of futurity ; and as well as 
his own destiny, long to know the bright or dark 
pictures with which time must teem for his country. 
The burden of his care, if it found not shape, ever 
was " Watchman, frhat of the aight? Watchman, 

•2 



10 

what of the night ? The Watchman saith The 
morning cometh, and also the night. If ye will 
inquire, inquire ye. Return, come." 

And he has gone. While, since the first start- 
ling peal, the moaning toll has not ceased to 
reverberate from each hill and valley of our land, 
he has been entering on that glorious fruition, of 
which human prescience never can conceive. If 
we may know aught of angelic beings, he will in- 
quire ever, there where inquiry may be answered 
by knowledge in perfection, 

" Watchman, what of the night ?" 



And if to the saints in glory are known the affairs 
of earth, with what holy interest will he watch the 
changes of our country's state — its morning's 
dawn, or its deepening nights ! We speak confi- 
dently, and perhaps boldly of his present situation. 
We doubt it not. The nation doubts it not. 

We have mourned, bitterly mourned ; and 
though the rapid flow of time's inevitable stream 
may smooth, it can never obliterate our sorrow. 
When the blow came, it overwhelmed us ; our 
contemplation fell powerless. But our eyes were 






11 

opened, and it was reality. Agonizing, soul-sick- 
ening was the reluctant conviction that the hero 
was taken from us forever. Then we knew that 
that only is lost, which can never, no, never be re- 
placed. But we ask you not on this occasion to 
mourn. No ; in all our reflections, in all our pub- 
lic services, in all our humiliation before God, 
there has been too much, unthankfulness that we 
ever had a Harrison to lose. 

Glance over the illuminated path of his career 
— the track of light unshadowed by a single 
breach of honour, a single sacrifice of principle ; 
in its beginning, clear, though small, in its pro- 
gress undeviating, ever swelling on, until but now 
it burst into more than meridian splendour. Then 
say if we are extravagant ; then say, if there is 
wonder that all the malice and slander of his par- 
tisan adversaries fell harmless, while " the voice of 
the people in his favour was like the continuous 
roaring of the sea." 

General Harrison was ever exalted by his own 
merits ; and like the Father of our country, ri- 
sing from mere respectability, he never owed his 
station to the influence of friends high in power, 



12 

or merely to accidental circumstances. Yet was 
he entirely free from that overweening conceit 
and excessive selfishness into which self-made 
men sometimes slide. The son of a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence, commission- 
ed as an ensign by Washington when only 19, — 
he became in two years the aid-de-camp of Gen- 
eral Wayne, and served in that rank in the 
famous battle with the Indians in 1794. So quick 
came promotion ; for in those days it was wont 
to follow merit, and had not yet degenerated to 
the service of patronage, or of partisan political 
purposes. And now the chieftain began to blend 
with the character of the brave and sagacious 
warrior, that of the politic and skilful states- 
man. Appointed in the 26th year of his age, as 
a delegate for the Western Territory, he distin- 
guished himself in Congress, especially as the 
originator of that master stroke of policy by 
which the lands of Government were divided into 
smaller tracts ; thus being taken out of the hands of 
speculators, and placed within the reach of those 
who would cultivate them. Next he became the 
Governor of Indiana, comprising then all the 



13 

West, except Ohio. Over this territory he vir- 
tually possessed unbounded sway, with every 
temptation to treachery, tyranny, and dishonesty; 
since, not only did he disburse the public money, 
but regulated almost unquestioned, the whole in- 
ternal policy of that vast tract of country ; mak- 
ing advantageous treaties with the Indians, but 
not dishonourable, and always abiding by them. 
In the famous battle of Tippecanoe, in 1811, his 
valour and address were conspicuous, and two 
years afterwards he led our troops to glorious 
victory at the battle of the Thames. In all his 
administration over this Northwest Territory, 
his honour was unimpeached, his skill conspicu- 
ous, his perseverance undaunted, and his success 
brilliant. In 1816, he was elected to the House 
of Representatives, and having served three years, 
was for two years a member of the Senate of 
Ohio, and afterwards of that of the United States. 
His last appointment was as Minister to ColumrJia 
by John Quincy Adams. 

After toiling through every service of trial or 
of danger which his country could put. upon him, 
spending his whole life from boyhood for her 



14 

sake, in the camp or by the wilderness, on the 
battle-plain, or in the senate-hall, the tried ser- 
vant of the public, returned to pass his remnant 
of life in peaceful tranquillity ; he who had held 
the highest offices of trust, without a wrinkle 
on his character, chose to become a retired yeo- 
man. 

But his country would not have it so. Appre- 
ciating his merits, and remembering his services, 
though late, she called him to the Presidential 
chair. Reprehend who may, we cannot but ad- 
mire that honourable dignity which led him during 
all the excitement of a hotly contested election, 
to refuse to seek success by committing himself 
to any avowal of his principles, by pledging him- 
self to any course of measures. To impertinent 
interrogatories his answer always was — that his 
life and services were before the public, and his 
sentiments known, so far as they could expect, 
from his public addresses. He would be elected by 
the people for his merits, and not by any political 
party, for the accomplishment of its purposes. 
And so it was. The people called him. He 
came to serve the people. 



15 

Thus did light gleam through our country, hope 
freshen in our hearts, and the buds of prosperity 
blossom throughout our borders. But the light 
paled, hope shuddered, the blossoms were nipped. 
The stern messenger came, of wo to us, but of 
peace to the hero. Although to us the blow was 
sudden, to him it was not altogether unexpected, 
perhaps not undesired. For he had seen an end 
of all perfection ; and doubtless the patriot had 
already discovered in experience, that the highest 
post in this world's gift is the most full of trouble. 
That single month of office must have proved the 
most toilsome and anxious of his life. For him- 
self, he had proved the world, and was quite ready 
to lie down and die. Yet how distressing, when 
the eyes of the nation were turned to him with ea- 
ger expectation, when he was just entering upon 
his course of authority, must have been the 
thought of leaving his work unaccomplished, his 
promises untested ! 

With his spiritual hope established, with the 
bright anticipation of eternal blessedness shining 
clear on his gaze, love and duty bequeathed his last 
utterance, a rich legacy to his country. And the 



16 

patriot's burning wishes, concentrated in one final 
request, who, who will forget ? Could we address 
his honoured successor, we would entreat him to 
remember, to " understand" those living words of 
death, and having "carried them out" to commit 
them solemnly to him who shall come after. And 
now where shall we rank him but next to Wash- 
ington ? If there be a hero whose fame no act of 
cruelty ever tarnished, whose valour and sagacity 
no defeat ever falsified ; if history's pages name 
a patriot who sacrificed all to his country, whose 
native nobility of principle soared beyond all par- 
tisan purposes and every mean device, making 
right and not utility his aim; if he be a Christian 
who, without a loud profession, leads a Chris- 
tian's life, such a life as no man void of the 
fear of God and unregenerate can lead, and dies a 
Christian's death, that spotless Hero, that self-de- 
nying Patriot, that humble Christian was 

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